Johnny Marr says The Smiths splitting up was “mostly a personal thing”
nme.comJohnny Marr has said in a new interview that The Smiths‘ break-up was “mostly a personal thing”.Speaking to MusicRadar, the musician reflected on how the Morrissey-fronted band parted ways back in 1987 following the release of their fourth and final studio album, ‘Strangeways, Here We Come’.“It was mostly a personal thing,” Marr told the outlet. “We were working at such a breakneck pace – 50-odd tracks in four years – that I thought I was going to end up repeating myself.”He continued: “Also, I was frustrated with what people expected me to come up with.
By creating your own rules, the influences and methods of songwriting that you allow yourself to use, you end up boxing yourself into a corner of musical politics.”Marr went on to elaborate on his desire to be able to express himself creatively, despite pressure from fans to make a certain type of music. “If you step out of that corner, it’s immediately called ’sell-out’,” he said.“Some ‘fans’ – for want of a better word – just wanted me to jingle-jangle on my Rickenbacker till I died.
But if I have to forsake fame, fortune, and popularity for the experience of being able to play exactly what I want when I want, I’d do it again.”Additionally, the soloist opened up about some of the controversies that surrounded The Smiths when they were together.
He said they “went through every conceivable rock and roll tragedy: drug busts, police harassment, controversy”.Marr added: “We had everything but a death, thank God.
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